Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have taken their foot off the gas (Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
Liverpool’s unwelcome defensive statistics continue to accumulate like last-minute demands on the front door mat.
As of right now, they have only preserved three clean sheets in their previous 19 games and none in their previous nine. Even worse, in their last five games at Anfield, they have given up the first goal in four of those contests.
Despite coming back to defeat Brighton two weeks ago, they have trailed in six of their last eight games. They have also lost to Manchester United and Atalanta, which has cost them one and most likely two chances to win trophies.
The Premier League title is also eroding in Jurgen Klopp’s final season, and Crystal Palace’s first victory at Anfield in seven years is a major setback.
Liverpool has scored 27 goals from the 76th minute onwards and recovered from behind to take a league-high 27 points, but in the end they are discovering that you can’t always bounce back.
Even Alisson’s comeback from a nearly two-and-a-half-month absence due to a hamstring injury was insufficient to provide them with the defensive stability they required against Palace.
Palace, who had scored just 15 goals away from home going into Anfield, was consistently able to cut through them on the break, and Eberechi Eze went unmarked for his goal.
Everyone in Liverpool’s backline has become infected by their weakness, which has spread like a virus. Even the defensive colossus, Virgil van Dijk, has appeared vulnerable. Andy Robertson’s outstanding goalline clearance kept Palace from losing the game only once, when the Liverpool captain slipped to allow Jean-Philippe Mateta to score.
Additionally, the usually dependable French star Ibrahima Konate’s form has declined. Mateta outmuscled Konate and should have scored a second goal for Palace, but Alisson stopped him at the last second. It didn’t matter, and now Liverpool is suddenly dancing to Klopp’s last tune incorrectly.
